All She Couldn't Have
by Empress-Eerian-Sadow
Summary: When Yuffie picked Vincent up from the side of the road, she could never have imagined what would happen. Rated M for adult themes and situations. COMPLETE!
1. Roadside Apperation

AUTHOR'S NOTES: I was listening to Heart's All I Wanna Do when this came to mind. I said to myself, "What if Vincent and Yuffie had a one night stand? And what if it couldn't have a happy ending, cause she's already committed?" And the song fit everything I did perfectly. So, I suggest listening to the song as you read, or just before, because it really sets the tone.

DISCLAIMER: I don't own the rights to Final Fantasy 7, Vincent Valentine, Yuffie Kisaragi, Reeve, Cid Highwind, Shera, Rocket Town or Wutai. I do own all origonal characters and the plot of this story. Also, I do not own the song All I Wanna Do by the band Heart. I am merely using them for purposes of this work of fanfiction and will be making no profit off of them.

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The rain was coming down from the heavens so hard that it seemed like Leviathan himself was weeping, though for the life of her, Yuffie Kisaragi couldn't imagine why that would be. She'd been working with her father and Reeve for the last several years to get Wutai back on track, so Leviathan should be happy if anything. But she was miles from the island, so perhaps he wept for the rest of the Planet.

Or maybe she'd just been listening to Chekov and Gorky too much again.

After driving for a few more miles, the rain picked up even more, making the road before her headlights nearly invisible in the onslaught. "Gods, what a horrible night. Glad Reeve had this car I could borrow tonight."

Something caught her eye outside and she squinted through the rain that the wipers were doing little to keep away. "Is that a person out there?"

Lightning flashed then, almost as if nature was trying to help her answer her question. Clearly, she saw the silhouette of a person off to one side of the road.

She turned on the brights of her headlights to see the person better. The person turned to look into the oncoming light, and the way he—she?—raised an arm to shield his face from the light seemed very familiar.

She pulled the car up to the person, and discovered that the obscuring rain his even this stranger's gender from her. Reaching across the seat, she popped open the passenger door.

"Hey!" she called. "You want a ride?

"Yuffie?" The figure squinted into the car, and Yuffie caught a flash of red eyes in the darkness.

"Vincent?" She couldn't believe that it might really be him, but she couldn't deny that it sounded very much like him.

The figure had started to climb into the car, but stopped when he saw her face. "It is you," he stated.

"Hi, Vincent." Suddenly, she felt very much like the shy awkward teenager she'd been when she left. Not that she'd ever been shy around anyone but him.

The silence stretched out between them for several minutes while the lightning flashed and the rain continued to pound on the roof. It turned from awkward to the kind of silence they'd shared on their journey to defeat Sephiroth. It became very comfortable.

Yuffie noticed this and was glad. It meant that he wasn't going to bolt off into the storm for whatever reason.

He wasn't wearing his cloak, Yuffie noticed, but Vincent hadn't changed a bit physically in the last six years. She knew she had, and wasn't sure what he thought as she watched his eyes survey her face and body.

"So…are you getting in or what?" Yuffie finally broke the silence by asking.

He replied by sitting down and closing the door.

_Thank Leviathan. I couldn't' have let him go back out in that._ "So, where ya headed?" Yuffie started the car back down the road.

"Nowhere." Vincent seemed disinclined to talk.

"Nowhere? You were out in that going _nowhere_?" She knew that he'd done some crazy things—sleeping in a coffin for twenty years being one of them—but this was the craziest thing she'd ever heard. A person didn't go out in a storm like this to go nowhere.

"Please, Yuffie. I do not wish to discuss it."

"Sure. Okay." Same old Vincent all right. "Well, I'm heading for Rocket Town. That good for you?"

"Its fine."

Yuffie watched him from the corner of her eye, wishing she knew what he was thinking. Had he missed her? Did he miss any of them? Had he even thought about her since he'd left her standing on hand of the Da-Cho statue in Wutai?

_Why did he leave?_

He huddled down in the seat, arms folded. His chin rested against his chest and his eyes were closed. Clearly, he didn't want to talk about anything.

Yuffie sighed and returned her full attention to the road.

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No fears, readers! more will be up tonight. this fic is FINISHED! i just don't have time to get it typed before work. promise to have it all up by 3 am. TTFN  
Eerian 


	2. The Inn

Vincent opened his eyes as Yuffie stopped the car in front of Rocket Town's small inn. "Why not stay with Cid and Shera?"

"With all those little girls funning around everywhere?" Yuffie made a face. "Ugh. I don't think so."

" 'All those little girls'? I was only aware of one."

"Well, you've missed some stuff in the last six years. They have four now. And it's past their bedtime." Yuffie gave him a smirk. "You can risk the wrath of Shera if you want, but I'm not gonna."

Vincent's crimson gaze remained steady as he replied, "Perhaps the inn is the better part of valor."

"Yup." The ninja looked out the windshield. "Gods, we're gonna get soaked going back out there! Even if we run."

"We could always sleep in the car," Vincent suggested, with the ghost of a smile.

"No way! Even four little girls is better than that!" With that, Yuffie jumped out of the car and sprinted for the door of the inn.

_Aw, crap. I forgot my spare clothes, _she thought as she dashed inside. _Oh well. I'll just…Great Leviathan! Where did all these people come from!_

She heard the door open and close again, and turned to see Vincent surveying the crowded room.

"Sorry it's so packed," she apologized, remembering how much he'd hated crowds. "It's not usually like this."

"It is all right. I will simply stay in my room" He looked almost vulnerable, and Yuffie realized that she'd been wrong when she thought he hadn't changed.

Now that she could see him in full light, not the half-lighting from the car's dome, she could see that he'd lost weight. His claw was dull and tarnished. His hair was longer—and even more unkempt.

But the most surprising thing about Vincent's appearance was the pale white starburst-shaped scar below his right eye.

_How did that happen? I didn't know Vincent **could** scar._

Something in the way he held himself told her that this was not the time to ask what had happened. If she did, he'd most certainly leave—and she knew she'd never see him again.

"Right. Then let's go gets some rooms." She didn't bother to ask if he had any gil—he wasn't even carrying a gun. Vincent being broke was pretty much a foregone conclusion.

Obviously, the gunslinger had fallen on some incredibly hard times.

The duo walked to the check in desk, Vincent staying uncharacteristically close to Yuffie. The clerk smiled as she noticed the ninja.

"Good evening, Lady Kisaragi. What can we do for you?"

"Two rooms please. Singles are fine." Yuffie began rummaging in her pockets for the gil to pay.

"I'm sorry, Lady Kisaragi. All I have left is one single room for the night," The clerk apologized.

"Huh?" Yuffie wasn't sure she'd heard right. "Only one room?"

"Yes, ma'am. The Highwind is grounded due to the storm so we're booked up."

"The single room will do," Vincent told the clerk.

"Are you sure, Vince?" Yuffie asked.

"It is that, or back into the rain to the car or Cid and Shera's. I do not wish to be nearly drowned out there again." His eyes locked with hers and Yuffie found herself looking away quickly.

"Sure. Okay." The ninja took the room key from the clerk and slid one hundred gil across the counter to her. "Thanks."

"Have a nice stay, Lady Kisaragi. Sir."

Yuffie led Vincent upstairs to the room number on the key. Sighing, she put the key in the lock and turned it, opening the door.

The room was everything she'd come to expect from a single bed room at the inn of Rocket Town. It held a utilitarian bed, dresser and desk all in a light brown wood. In front of the desk was an uncomfortable looking plastic chair. A small lamp on the desk and a single window provided all the room's lighting.

The room was also cool—for some reason the air conditioning was on—and Yuffie shivered as she stepped inside. Vincent closed the door behind them and laid a hand on Yuffie's shoulder.

"Are you cold?

"A little." She rubbed her hands across her upper arms in an effort to warm them. "It's just cause I'm all wet."

"Then you should change out of those clothes and warm up in the bed."

She blushed faintly. "My spare clothes are in the car. I forgot to bring them in."

Vincent just looked at her.

"What?" she asked, squirming under his scrutiny.

"You will get ill if you do not get warm."

"Vincent, I…" she couldn't find words to explain what she was feeling.

"Don't worry. I won't watch." He took his hand from her shoulder and walked to the window where he stared out at the storm.

Yuffie wasn't sure what he was thinking. She wasn't even sure what _she_ was thinking.

There had been something between them, before. Some spark that she couldn't define, even now. She'd wanted him then—the romantic and the physical, but he'd left before anything had come of it.

Now, here he was again, live and mostly well. And the feelings she thought might be gone, we resurfacing. And she couldn't do anything about it because of her commitments at home. Sometimes life really sucked.

Slowly, she began to pull her shirt off, wincing as the cold air hit her flesh, chilling her again. Quickly, she pulled off her pants as well, then grabbed the blanket off the bed and wrapped herself up in it.

"Okay, I'm done," she told Vincent.

He turned and looked at her blanket bundled form as she bent to pick up her clothes from teh floor. "Yuffie." The girl looked up. "Sit down. I will lay them out for you."

"Huh? No, its okay—"

"Sit." He took the clothes from her hand.

Yuffie stared into Vincent's unreadable eyes for a moment before she forced herself to look away and reply. "Okay."

Vincent took her clothes over to the dresser and pulled open a drawer. He layed the clothes out neatly—almost meticulously—over the drawer so they would dry. Then he walked to the thermostat box on the wall and turned the air off.

Yuffie watched him as he walked across the room and realized that he was leaving a trail of puddles across the nice wooden floor.

"Hey, Vince?" The gunman turned to her. "You're dripping everywhere."

"True. But we only have one blanket." He gave her another of the ghost smiles he was so good at. "I will be fine."

"You're not impervious, Vincent. You can get just as sick as me." _Gods, what am I doing? I know where this will go… _"I don't mind sharing the blanket."

"Yuffie…"

"Vincent, please. If I wanted you to die of pneumonia, I would have left you by the side of the road out there. You're too important to me for that." She didn't really think that would convince him. It was pretty cheesy. It was completely true, but cheesy.

"All right."

_Huh? He went for it? What otherworld did I fall into?_ She watched, amazed as he peeled his shirt off, causing his hair to throw water droplets across his chest and back. _Great Leviathan, is he **trying** to turn me on? If he is, it's working._ She felt heat moving into her cheeks as his hands moved to the fly of his pants and began to unfasten them. _Really, really working._

He stopped briefly and sat in the chair to take off his boots. Then he pulled off his pants and Yuffie nearly died.

_Oh my god. He goes commando. And he's beautiful…_ He was the most beautiful, perfectly formed man she'd ever seen, even with the faint scars across his back and the metal claw that ended at his elbow.

He looked at her strangely, as if he'd heard her breath catch in her throat, or her heart skip a beat. "Is there a problem?"

"No, not really." She managed to keep her voice steady—barely. _No problem, except that I have no idea how I'll be able to keep my hands off you._

"Good. You did promise to share the blanket, after all." She wasn't sure, but she thought he was smirking at her.

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sorry kiddies. i know i promised to have all of it up, but i was just wasted after work today, and this was all i could manage. i'll try to have the rest up tomorrow afternoon. 'til then, read and review!

eerian


	3. Truth and Decisions

They'd been wrapped up in the blanket together for several hours when the storm finally broke. Somehow, miraculously, the entire affair had managed to stay platonic. Or at least as platonic as two naked people wrapped up in the same blanket could be.

Currently, his arms were wrapped around her, with her head pillowed on his shoulder and his head resting on hers. He was sleeping, and she'd only been awake for a little while. This was a position she'd had many fantasies about waking up in, and she couldn't help but feel very peaceful.

Here, in the tiny hours of the morning, she could admit to herself that she loved Vincent Valentine.

She couldn't—shouldn't—do anything about it; her father had seen to that last year. But her heart and her head could acknowledge how she felt.

Vincent stirred a bit in his sleep, moaning softly, and ruining Yuffie's peaceful mood. She wished she could see his face, to be able to tell if he was having another of his nightmares. He stirred a bit more and tightened his arms almost painfully around her, murmuring something in his sleep.

Yuffie had decided to wake him out of self preservation when she heard him take in a sharp breath and felt his head lift from hers.

"Vincent?" She looked up at him with slightly worried eyes.

He turned crimson eyes back down toward her, confusion written across his features. "Yuffie?"

"Yeah. You okay?" She was really worried. As far as she knew, he always woke up alert and ready for anything.

She was surprised when he hugged her close to his chest, holding on almost as if his life depended on her presence. And she could have been wrong, but Yuffie would have sworn she felt his tears dropping into her hair.

"Vincent?" she asked again.

"I am all right," he replied softly.

"Are you sure? Seemed like a pretty intense dream."

"I am." He ran his hand over her hair, while his claw continued to hold her close. "It was only a nightmare."

"Okay." She laid her head against his chest where she could hear his heat beat. "Can I ask you a personal question?"

"_You_ may." Yuffie didn't miss the inflection Vincent placed on the word "you."

"Why did you leave Wutai?"

There was a long silence and Yuffie thought that he wasn't going to answer. She'd resigned herself to still not knowing when he finally did.

"Godo would not let me have what I desired. He told me to leave, or he would kill me."

_Asshole._ "What was it that you wanted?" She was braced for any answer but the one he gave her.

"You."

"Me?" She'd spent so much time wanting him, but it had never occurred to her that _he_ might want _her_ too. "Why?"

"I love you." Vincent's admission was simple, straight to the point, and made Yuffie truly hate her father.

_Leviathan damn you, Godo. How dare you take away my chance at happiness. Our chance at happiness._ Yuffie tried to speak, but couldn't force the words past the lump of sadness and rage in her throat. She just let Vincent hold her as she sorted things out in her mind.

Neither was sure how much time had passed since Vincent's admission, but the sun was just peaking over the horizon when Yuffie came to her decision.

She broke Vincent's hold around her waist to turn around and face him. She straddled his lap, making both of them painfully aware of their nakedness, and wrapped her arms around his neck.

"Vincent, do you still want me?"

"Your father…" She could feel him becoming aroused, even as he weakly protested.

"My father isn't here. Do you want me?"

"God yes," he whispered.

She wrapped her hands in his hair and pulled his mouth to hers for a searing kiss.

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NOTE: apologies to all of you who may be looking for my first lemon here. It doesn't exist. Yet. Look for it on adult fanfiction(dot)net. I'll have a link for it in my profile soon. TTFN

Eerian


	4. Letters

When she woke in the early evening after their lovemaking, Yuffie couldn't bring herself to feel guilty like she thought she would. She knew she was being unfaithful to the man her father had made her marry, but she didn't love him. She loved Vincent—and had held onto that love for six years. And so had Vincent.

Her marriage was simply a power play by their families, and they knew it. If they had been left to their own devices, the two of them would probably have never even noticed each other in passing.

The only regret she had was that Vincent couldn't come back to Wutai with her.

Silently, she slipped out of bed and to the dresser where their clothes had dried. Quickly, she dressed, then moved over to the desk.

Sitting down in the chair, Yuffie stared down at the inn's complimentary note pad and pen. Picking up the pen, she took a deep breath and began writing.

_Dearest Vincent,_

_Today was the most magical, wonderful day of my life. Knowing that you shared the feelings I've had fro years has made me feel so much more complete. I love you._

_But I have to go. My responsibilities in Wutai call me back. And I know that you can't come back with me. Maybe someday in the future, but not now._

_Please don't come after me. Or try to contact me. We both know what my father would do if you did._

_All I can do is pray that Leviathan brings us together again in the future._

_All my love forever,_

Yuffie 

Silently, the ninja crept from the room while the gunman slept on.


	5. Crimson Eyes

Three years later 

_Atnum was so thrilled to find out I was pregnant,_ Yuffie thought as she tucked her two-year-old son into bed. _Then no one had to know he couldn't have children. I just wish that Val didn't look so much like Vincent._

The boy stared up at his mother with his father's crimson eyes and smiled a cheery smile. "G'nite, mama!"

Yuffie kissed him on the forehead. "Goodnight, Val. Sleep tight."

She walked to the door, shut off the light and slid the panel closed.

The hallway was dark when she entered, but it was a comfortable darkness. The rest of the household was in bed, or occupied with quiet tasks in their own rooms. Realizing that she wasn't really tired, she decided to head to her office to take care of some paperwork before bed.

Yuffie was rounding the corner of the hallway when she realized that she wasn't alone in the hallway. She spun around and caught a glimpse of crimson and black in the shadowy hall. Squinting, she could make out the shape of a human body to go with the colors in her sight. She felt herself reaching for Conformer.

The intruder was leaned up against the wall. It was the same pose Vincent had always used when he would wait for her outside her room all those years ago.

"Hello, Yuffie," the figure said.

_It's him!_ "Vincent!"

"I heard about Godo. I came as soon as I could." Vincent stepped out from the shadows. "And when I got here, I learned a most disturbing thing."

Yuffie just looked at him, knowing where this was going already.

"They told me that you were married, Yuffie. And that you had been for four years."

Yuffie felt a tear slip down her cheek. She'd betrayed him, and he knew it.

"I'm sorry," she whispered, looking down at the floor.

"I forgive you." He placed his hand under her chin and forced her to look at him. "I couldn't trade that night and day for anything."

He kissed her then, softly, as if he was afraid to taint her. "Be happy with him. Goodbye, Yuffie."

He turned to go, but Yuffie grabbed his arm, stopping him.

Or she thought she had. But his stillness told her otherwise, and she looked around his shoulder to see what was wrong.

Her son was standing in the hallway looking up at them with Vincent's eyes.


	6. Grand Finale

"Why didn't you tell me?"

Yuffie swallowed audibly as she smoothed her son's ebony hair back from his forehead. "I didn't know where you were."

"Did you try to find me?" Vincent's tone was laced with depression and anger.

"Of course I did. What kind of cold hearted bitch do you think I am?" Quickly, she checked to be certain that Val was, in fact, asleep. "We've had Reno and the Turks on retainer looking for you for two years.

"I wanted you to know that you had a son. You were just being too hard to find."

Vincent didn't reply as he looked at the boy sleeping in Yuffie's arms.

They sat in silence then, the way they had the previous half-hour before, while waiting for Val to fall asleep. It was tense and uncomfortable as it could possibly be with out Atnum choosing this moment to check up on his wife.

Nearly twenty minutes later, Vincent broke the silence. "Your husband knows Val isn't his, doesn't he?"

Yuffie nodded. "Yeah. But he was so glad that I was pregnant that I didn't matter. Atnum is sterile, so I saved him the dishonor of having no children. I was the only one who knew about that."

"I see."

"He'll want to meet you, since you're here. He's always wanted to meet the man who gave him his son."

"I don't think I can do that."

"Please, Vincent."

"I cannot. I cannot meet the man who replaced me." Vincent looked broken—like all the life had been beaten out of him by this night.

"He isn't your replacement," she said. "It was an arranged marriage."

"Do you love him?" The gunman's gaze was hard as steel.

"No. I love you."

"At least you gave me that much more than Lucrecia." With that, he rose from his chair and left the room.

_Oh, Leviathan. What have I done to him?_

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And that's that kiddies! Look for a companion piece soon, Vincent's POV. But not too soon, as I have other projects that I need to work on first! ;-)

Eerian


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